I want to have a few keepsakes for my children when they’re grown, but I’m having a hard time deciding which items to keep. What items make ideal keepsakes, and what’s the preferred way to preserve and store them?
Kate S. e-mailed us at expert@sweetspot.ca; and our antiques expert, Marla Good, answered:
These days, so many things are manufactured to be “keepsakes,” that identifying what should truly be kept is made doubly difficult!
Curating Your Keepsake Collection
The good news is that it’s your children who will tell you which items need to be saved by the amount of attention paid to an item over time. Here are some other things to consider:
- Choose what you love, and what they loved, and forget about “shoulds.”
- Choose items such as an outfit that your baby looked especially sweet in (and to remember how small they were), a favourite stuffed toy, a bit of a beloved blankie, some artwork…
- Revisit the items from time to time – a constant culling of the collected objects is also a good idea. (Birthdays are a great time to revisit keepsakes.)
- Take photos instead of keeping items, and print or archive those.
- Or just plain tell stories – there’s nothing more valuable. After all, the goal is to preserve the memories as much as the actual things, right?
Storing Your Keepsakes
A sad fact of storing items is that we often store these keepsakes in the worst places for them – basements and attics. And since museum-quality storage is often beyond us -- that is, temperature-controlled, dimly lit, perfectly humidified, insect-, rodent- and contaminant-free storage -- the best we can do is minimize any damage.
Items should be properly cleaned, and stored in a stable environment – not too hot or cold, dry or damp, and protected from damaging elements like light and chemicals or pests, and in a sturdy storage container.
Once you decide what to store in “the museum of your child,” you can look up the perfect way to store specific items, from macaroni art to textiles to sports memorabilia in my new favourite book about this subject: Saving Stuff, by Don Williams and Louisa Jaggar.
Marla Good started working with antiques as a teen in her native Buffalo. In Toronto for 15 years, she's worked for Birks Estate Jewellery Department and Ritchies Auctioneers as Head of Jewellery, Couture and Timepieces. She currently works at a small antique store and deals privately.